Mayor Daniel Lurie was all smiles last week at Kezar Stadium as he spoke into the camera for one of his many Instagram videos.
“I am fired up,” he said, as he announced that Kezar would soon be home to a new minor league soccer team, the Golden City Football Club. The team’s arrival will bring food, booze, and merchandise concessions to a sleepy corner of the city, inside Golden Gate Park, as well as millions of dollars in renovations. “This is good, good news for San Franciscans,” he said.
While the plans have miffed a local team that claims it’s being sidelined, that’s not the only complication. Geoff Oltmans, Golden City’s co-owner, is a longtime and generous donor to Tipping Point, the nonprofit Lurie founded in 2005, posing an appearance of a conflict for a mayor with close ties to San Francisco’s moneyed elite.
While conversations about bringing Oltmans’ team to Kezar started in 2023 — before Lurie’s term — ethics experts say the deal raises questions about how the mayor separates the interests of the donors he courted in his previous life from those of the wealthy individuals and companies with business before the city. There is no evidence of any rule breaking, but the arrangement could present a challenge for a mayor who pitched himself to voters as uniquely able to leverage his relationships to the city’s benefit.
John Pelissero, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said it would be in the public’s best interest for Lurie to withdraw himself from the proposal.
“To avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest, he really should be recusing himself from any direct involvement with the soccer club and the stadium,” said Pelissero. “When you have a conflict of interest, or even the appearance, it is reasonable to ask whether the public interest is being served.”
Sean McMorris, a good governance advocate with California Common Cause, said it’s important to consider Lurie’s background when viewing such deals.
“When you’re wealthy like Lurie, and you have powerful connections with people who want to do business with the city, you are going to be more scrutinized, so he has to be more careful,” he said.
Tipping Point funds have gone toward addressing issues such as housing and homelessness. Lurie stepped down as CEO in 2019 and served as board chair until 2023, when he launched his campaign for mayor. He attends the nonprofit’s yearly gala, including its most recent one, on May 1, which raised $20 million. As mayor, Lurie has surrounded himself with donors and former board members of Tipping Point, including Penny Coulter, his director of protocol; housing and economic development chief Ned Segal; chief of staff Staci Slaughter; and deputy chief of staff Matthew Goudeau.
Oltmans has been a regular donor to Tipping Point since 2012, its impact reports show, contributing a total of $152,000 to $324,987. (The nonprofit reports donor amounts in ranges.) The influential private equity firm where Oltmans works, Silver Lake, has donated between $275,500 and $550,992.
Lurie is sponsoring a resolution in support of the proposal along with Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s backing. The Recreation and Parks Commission discussed the project on Thursday. A Board of Supervisors vote is expected in June.
The mayor’s office and Oltmans did not respond to requests for comment.
For decades, Tipping Point has brought together donors from elite business circles, including the 49ers’ CEO, Jed York; the Dolby family; and Salesforce. As mayor, Lurie has leaned on these connections to establish entities like the Partnership for San Francisco, which is charged with righting the city’s wobbly economy. Tipping Point board member Katherine August-deWilde is leading that effort.
Oltmans owns Golden City FC with Wells Fargo financial adviser Marc Rohrer, a former professional soccer player from Germany.
The city will offer a 15-year permit to the team, which would begin play in 2026 or 2027. The deal would allow Golden City FC to play 20 regular-season matches per year at Kezar, along with preseason and playoff games, from March to October.
The team promises to invest $10 million in renovations for the stadium’s turf, seating, scoreboard, and concessions. The permit also allows for “rent credits,” in which renovations can offset some costs that would otherwise be paid to the city, including permit fees and ticket sales.
Golden City FC is part of the MLS Next Pro league, which was formed in 2022 and has nearly 30 teams. It is one league below the United Soccer League, home to the new Oakland Roots, and two below Major League Soccer, home to the San Jose Earthquakes.
The Recreation and Parks Department said bringing a professional soccer team to Kezar has been in the works since 2017, after the Deltas, a team from the North American Soccer League, lasted only one year at the stadium.
The field is currently used by high school football and local soccer clubs. Some of the latter are supportive of the deal. In a May 14 letter from Farolito Soccer Club addressed to the parks commission, president Irene López said the deal would “revitalize” Kezar.
But San Francisco City FC, a supporter-owned club that competes in USL League Two, is pushing back. The team has played at Kezar for about 10 years, and Golden City’s permit would allow it to play only one game per year there. (The Parks Department said the team used Kezar four times last year.)
San Francisco City FC board member David Lee said the deal amounts to public space that is “effectively” being privatized.
“Why are we displacing organic organizations that exist already?” Lee asked. “And is it OK to do that because another organization wants to come in with money?”
During SF City FC’s first home game of the season Wednesday evening, roughly 1,500 supporters donned bucket hats, scarves, and jerseys in the club’s black-and-gold colorway. Fans said they had never seen Kezar Stadium so packed for a match.
The team’s creative director, Ian Blackley, said he was surprised the club was allowed to play Wednesday after it ruffled feathers with the city over the Golden City deal. Blackley predicted that the new club, while professional, won’t offer that much better of a product.
“Messi is not going to play at Kezar,” he said.
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Ezra Wallach contributed reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Ian Blackley’s title.